1. Field of the Invention
The invention concerns a device for synchronously guiding a roller bearing cage for a roller bearing performing a swivel motion. Such roller bearings are used, for example, as swash plate roller bearings for hydraulic axial piston machines. Other applications are also possible.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A swash plate roller bearing for a hydraulic piston machine is disclosed in DE-PS No. 16 53 617. In this disclosure, the rollers are contained in a curved cage between the cylindrical bearing surface of the swash plate and the hollow cylindrical bearing surface of the machine housing, whereby the cage is equipped with a pinion gear for the forced guidance of the cage. The pinion gear meshes with a toothed segment connected to the machine housing and with another toothed segment connected to the swash plate.
In this known embodiment the pinion gear is provided over its full perimeter with teeth having the same pitch circle diameter. This means that for a precise result, i.e., for a pure rolling motion, the reference diameter of the pinion gear must be the same as the diameter of the rollers. However, in order to provide a total number of teeth of normal size for the pinion gear, DE-PS No. 16 53 617 teaches compensating for the difference between the pitch circle diameter of the pinion gear and the roller surface area by offsetting the shaft of the pinion gear radially inward relative to the roller shaft. Since application of this measure in the known embodiment does not fully prevent creeping, i.e., sliding, the toothed segments are, in addition, attached in a flexible manner to permit some lateral motion by the toothed segments.